Sack of Lucca

The Sack of Lucca (1494) was a siege that occurred as a part of the Italian War of 1494-98. The French army of King Charles VIII of France, which invaded Italy with the goal of conquering the Kingdom of Naples, sacked the walled city of Lucca and massacred its inhabitants after testing its chain-shot cannon for the first time.

Background
King Charles VIII of France and King Ferdinand II of Aragon both laid claim to the throne of Naples as a part of the traditional Angevin-Aragonese feud in southern Italy, and both sides sought to enforce their traditional claims to the Kingdom of Naples. In 1493, King Ferrante I of Naples and Pope Alexander VI formed an alliance with the marriage of Sancia of Naples to the Pope's youngest son, Joffre Borgia; the Pope had also strengthened his position in Italy by marrying his daughter Lucrezia Borgia to Lord Giovanni Sforza of Pesaro. The Borgias' rival, Cardinal Giuliano Della Rovere, failed to court the assistance of King Ferrante of Naples, Piero de Medici of Florence, and Duke Ludovico Sforza of Milan, and he finally decided to head to France to invite King Charles VIII of France to invade Italy and claim the throne of Naples. Della Rovere, in return, expected for the French to cleanse Rome of the Borgias and restore the sanctity of the Catholic Church. Charles VIII agreed to do so, but he insisted on fighting "the French way", a brutal style of warfare adopted during the Hundred Years' War. Charles VIII obtained the allegiance of Duke Sforza in Milan, and he led an army of 25,000 French troops into Italy in 1494 to enforce his claim.

Siege
Charles' army received safe passage through Lombardy, and it was not before long that he was forced to come up against the fortified city of Lucca. Lucca had no intention of fighting in the war, and its envoys met the French envoy inside of the city. When the French envoy returned to the French army outside of the city and informed King Charles that Lucca was prepared to give them passage on the conditions of a few terms, Charles decided to order his cannon to fire to symbolize his "terms". The French heavy cannon, which had only recently been tested, proved devastating. Their chain shot breached even the most powerful walls, and the Luccan defenders found themselves overwhelmed by heavy fire. King Charles then ordered a charge, and the French troops engaged in the slaughter of both the defenders and innocent people. Charles ordered the plundering of the city, and even women and children were killed by the French knights. Charles was motivated to do so by his men's desire for the spoils of war and victory, and the city was thoroughly sacked. Lucca was the first of many Italian cities to suffer this horrendous fate at the hands of the ugly and cruel French monarch.

Aftermath
Cardinal Della Rovere, who had accompanied the French army during the onslaught, was troubled by the carnage, as well as by Girolamo Savonarola's prophecy that a cardinal would invite large armies to invade Italy and create an apocalyptic scenario. Della Rovere volunteered to ride ahead of the King's army to Florence to deliver terms to Piero de Medici, hoping to avoid the slaughter happening elsewhere; King Charles told him that his men would pick the city of Lucca clean by the next morning, as they might not get another chance at sacking a city, apart from, possibly, Florence. King Charles' general told Della Rovere that the terms would be safe passage through Florence, the billeting of 25,000 French troops on the Florentine population, and a levy of 200,000 ducats to pay for the French invasion (later raised to 400,000 ducats at the behest of the general, in addition to hostages from each of the major noble families of the city). The unaccountably harsh demands were not listened to by the Florentines, leading to the sacking of the city and the rise of Girolamo Savonarola.